G30 P A II M I 
Italy called the Panr.efan, the chief place of which is 
Parma; whence it is con veyed to various parts of Europe. 
The excellent pafture-grounds of this country are wa¬ 
tered by the Po; and the cows, from whofe milk this 
cheefe is made, yield a great quantity of it. Of this cheefe 
there are three forts; th efromaggio di forma, about two 
palms in diameter, and feven or eight inches thick; and 
th zfromaggio di rabiole and di ribolini, which are not fo 
large. This cheefe. is of a faffron colour, and the belt is 
kept three or four years. 
PARMIGIA'NO, the ufual appellation of Francesco 
Mazzuoli, a painter of great and deferved renown, born 
at Parma in 1505. He acquired the firft rudiments of art 
under the tuition of his two uncles at Parma; and at 
the age of if furprifed the partiality of relationlhip, and 
even aftoniflied the exifting tafte of that part of Italy, 
by the produ&ion of a picture of St. John baptizing the 
Saviour in the River Jordan. But the fame of Raphael 
and Michael Angelo foon attracted him from his native 
city to Rome, where he then went; and, taking with him 
fome of his productions, was introduced by their renown 
to pope Clement VII. who highly honoured and efteemed 
him. In Rome he attached hirnfelf to the ftudy of 
Michael Angelo and Raphael; and exhibited the lofti- 
nefs of his mind, by compofing a ftyle for hirnfelf from 
the high qualities of thofe two great men, in conjunction 
■with what he had learned of Corregio. In Rome, and 
under the immediate influence of this newdy-acquired 
gufto, he painted feveral pictures, and among them a very 
fine one which reprefents the Virgin fieated in glory with 
a book in her hand, and the Infant. Handing on the 
clouds, and leaning againft her knee ; in front is a figure 
of St. John kneeling upon one knee, pointing with one 
hand to the Virgin, and turning his face to the obferver ; 
and in the background, afleep, is a figure of St. Jerome, 
who is fuppofed to have feen this vifion, and from which 
the picture takes its name. Vafari makes efpecial men¬ 
tion of it; and fays that Parmigiano painted it for Donna 
Maria Bufolino of Cittadi Caftelio, who intended to place 
it in the church of St. Salvatore del Lauro, in a chapel 
near the door. In the execution of it, Parmigiano had 
nearly loft his life; for, notwithftanding the liege of 
Rome by the Colonnas, he continued working upon it; 
and fome Germans, intent upon plunder, entered his room 
while he was fo engaged. The fplendour of the work, 
however, fortunately fo aftoniflied and delighted them, 
that, though they fpared in no excefs, but robbed the pa¬ 
laces and churches of every thing they thought worth 
having, yet they protected the painter, and honoured his 
abilities. He did not quite complete the piCiure, and 
foon after left the city; but not till the foldiers had 
obliged him to make for them a number of drawings in 
pen and ink. He was afterwards,, in going to fee fome 
friends, made a prifoner by other foldiers, from whom he 
difen'o-aged hirnfelf by paying money ; and then his uncle, 
alarmed for his fafety, removed him from Rome, and fent 
him back to Parma. This grand pifture was fafely lodged 
in the convent of the Frati della Pace, where it remained 
in the refeCIory many years, and was then carried by Ju¬ 
lio Bufolino to its original deftination, the church at 
Citta di Caftelio, where it remained till ‘it was purchafed, 
about the beginning of the prefent century, by the late 
marqiiis of Abercorn : he gave 1500I. for it; and fold it, 
in 1S09, to Mr. Davis of Briftol, for 3000 guineas. 
Parmigiano, in his return to his native place, flopped at 
Boloo-na ; and there he painted feveral pictures, and made 
a <rreat number of drawings. Among the pictures was 
a large one for the monks of St. Margaret, of the Virgin, 
with feveral faints, which was very highly efteemed by 
the Caracci, and by Guido was preferred to the St. Cecilia 
of Raphael. He there alfo painted a portrait of Charles 
V. with a figure of Fame crowning him with laurel, which 
he effected from memory, after feeing the emperor 
dining in public ; and it fo gratified his majefty, that he 
wilhed to have it; but, Parmigiano Hating that it was 
G I A N O. 
notfiniflied, it remained with him, and afterwards palled 
to the pofleflion of the duke of Mantua. 
He at length returned to his native city; and was im¬ 
mediately engaged to paint, in frefco, the vaulted ceiling 
of the church of Sta. Maria della Steccato ;’and in the 
lower part executed fix figures; a, Mofes, three Sibyls, 
and an Adam and Eve. Of which Mr. Barry, in a letter 
to Mr. Burke, fays, “ that they exhibit pow'ers which, 
if fully difplayed, might have exceeded either Raphael 
or M. Angelo.” Unfortunately at this time, when Par¬ 
migiano ought to have purfued this great work, and have 
eftablilhed his fame upon it, he turned aiide to the allu¬ 
ring ftudy of alchemy, and wafted his time and his for¬ 
tune in vain attempts at tranfmutafions ; which only 
prevented him from exercifing his abilities in a more cer¬ 
tain mode of obtaining not only gold, but alfo glory. 
He died at the age of 35, in 154.0. 
The ruling features of His ftyle are elegance of form, 
grace of countenance, contrail in attitude, enchanting 
chiarofcuro, and blandifhment of colour. When thefe 
are pure, he is inimitable : but his elegance is often 
ftretched to exceflive fiendernefs, and his grace deformed 
to affectation. He was a learned defigner: to his depth 
in defign, we rauft afcribe that freedom of execution, 
thofe decided ftrokes of his pencil, which Albano calls 
divine, and which add grace to the finilh of his pictures : 
they have not indeed all equal impafti of colour, nor 
equal effect, though fome, for the amore with which they 
are conducted, have been afcribed to Corregio : fuch 
is the Cupid fcooping his bow, with the two infants at 
his feet, one laughing, the other crying, of which there 
are feveral repetitions. Such was the delight found in 
the ftudy of the pictures of Parmigiano, that copies, and 
excellent ones too, are found all over Italy ; and are not 
unfrequently fold here as originals. The one upon which 
we have dwelt fo minutely above, the Dream ofSi. Jerome, 
is of fo high a clafs, that it may rank with the Peter 
Martyr of Titian, the Transfiguration of Raphael, and 
the St. Jerome of Dominichino. 
The great works of this mailer are in the churches of 
Parma, and other towns of Italy, and in the Vatican pa¬ 
lace; but they are not numerous. A great number of 
prints have been engraved from his defigns. 
It has been Hated by fome writers, and is.generally be¬ 
lieved, that Parmigiano, if not the inventor of etching, 
was the firft Italian who fuccefsfully praCtifed that.arc. 
Strutt fays of him, with great jullice, that “in the 
etchings of this great mailer we difcover the hand of the 
artift, working out a fyllem, as it were, from his own ima¬ 
gination, and driving to produce the forms he wanted to 
exprefs. We fee the difficulty he laboured under; and 
cannot doubt, from the examination of the mechanical 
part of the execution of his works, that he bad no in- 
ftruCtion. It appears to be fomething entirely new to 
him, without the knowledge of any thing better. We 
know that he certainly was not the firft inventor of 
etching, becaufe it was praCtifed in Germany before he was. 
of an age to attempt it; yet it appears as if he had beon 
unacquainted with the prior difcovery, or only knew of 
it imperfectly by report; and in the flatter cafe he might 
have been nearly as much at a lofs as in the former. The 
fpirit and genius which appear through the clouds are 
fuch as juilly render his etchings exceedingly valuable ; 
and on this account they have been often copied, and 
fometimes indifferently. The mechanical part of them is 
fcratched in with the point, often badly corroded with 
the aquafortis, and retouched with the graver, without 
the lealt appearance of knowledge as an engraver. But, 
looking beyond thefe defecls to the fweet characters of 
the heads, to the elegant turns of the figures, and to the 
beauty and fimplicity of the compofition of thefe rude 
{ketches, what is wanting in the excellency of the mecha¬ 
nical part of the art is abundantly fupplied to the judi¬ 
cious eye in the fire and animation of the mailer. The 
copies are always better than the originals, with refpeft 
to 
